George Matcham (1753 – 3 February 1833) was an English civil servant of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, traveller and brother-in-law of Admiral Lord Nelson.

Life

Matcham was the only son of Simon Matcham, Superintendent of the Marine of the

, and senior member in council of the

Presidency of Bombay The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

. He was educated at Charterhouse School in England; entering the civil service of the East India Company, he subsequently became their Resident at Baroche. His father died in 1776, and the following year his mother sailed to England. Matcham travelled overland to join her. In 1780 he returned to India, again overland. On the cession of Baroche to the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Sh ...

in 1783, Matcham retired from the Indian civil service, and he made his way to England by an overland route, much of which he had previously explored. His travels included Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, the Greek islands, Hungary, and other countries. On one journey, with Arab guides, he rode on horseback from

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

to Pera (now Beyoğlu). He became known to British diplomats, and he was once presented to

Emperor Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

. He kept journals of his travels, and an account of a journey from Aleppo to Baghdad was published with the second edition of

James Capper James Capper (1743–1825) was a British army officer of the East India Company, known as a writer and meteorologist. Life The younger brother of Francis Capper, he was born 15 December 1743, and educated at Harrow School. He entered the East In ...

's ''Observations on the Passage to India'' (1784), and bound together with

Eyles Irwin Eyles Irwin (1751–1817) was an Irish poet and writer. He rose in the East India Company's service from a civil servant to superintendent of the company's affairs in China, but failed to gain a place on the board of directors. He is notable for ...

's ''Voyage up the Red Sea''.

In England

In 1785 he finally settled in England. In 1787 Matcham married Catherine, daughter of the Rev. Edmund Nelson and sister of Admiral Lord Nelson. They had five daughters and three sons. The family lived in Ringwood in Hampshire, and later in Ashfold, Sussex. He devoted himself to the pursuits of a country gentleman. He patented an apparatus for preserving vessels in danger of shipwreck (patent no. 2676 of 1803), and made several communications to the government on various public improvements. Matcham died on 3 February 1833. His widow lived afterwards in Holland Park in London; she died in 1842.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matcham, George 1753 births 1833 deaths British East India Company civil servants British travel writers